³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Contain your excitement (French/English)

I spent last year working as a language assistant in France and, being naturally a very cheerful person and wishing to impress my French colleagues with my enthusiasm for teaching (and everything, in fact!) I regularly expressed this by saying Je suis excitée! or Je suis si excitée! It was only after four months that a kind soul pointed out the sexual connotations of this phrase, literally meaning 'I am sexually aroused'. So that's four months of being hit on by French men that I could possibly have avoided!

Sent by: Jenny

Comments

Suzie, Cuers France 2011-03-14

Thank you for pointing this one out. I now understand why I get "that look" when I arrive at a party. Time to go and cringe

Flag this comment

Paul, Manchester UK 2009-12-07

And yet when one puts that phrase through a google translator,it clearly comes out with the phrase 'I'm excited or I'm so excited. So we could all trip up with this one. But not necessarily get results! of course.

Flag this comment

Share this page

Open/close

Related Links

On bbc.co.uk/languages

12-weeks email tips

Quick fix phrases 36 languages

Teachers and tutors

On bbc.co.uk

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Schools

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Learning

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service Learning English

Elsewhere

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not responsible for the content of external sites

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iD

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ navigation

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ © 2014 The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.